really? it's january? (part 1 of 2)

it really has been awhile. more than 2 months in fact, and they have been a packed 2 months.

where to begin...

well in November(if my old man memory doesn't let me down) we get to go to Maracaibo, which may be the hottest city in the entire world, seriously. it felt like 105 on thanksgiving day there, we had a staff conference where we got to connect with all of the Vida staff in Venezuela, it was incredible.

we got to hear some great talks and learn alot of great things. but even cooler than all of the stuff that i got to learn were the people that i got to meet and spend time with. the staff here in Venezuela are incredible and a testament to the AMAZING work God has been doing in the past few years here.
in one of our meetings we lined up by the length of time we have been involved in Vida Estudiantil here in VZ. it was so cool to see the living time line laid out before my eyes... not to mention i was the last one in the line. so to think of all that God has done before i arrived here and all that he would continue to do looong after i am gone and forgotten in this place. and the impact that it will have on this country and on so many other places in the world....
i also got to spend alot of great, intentional time with some of the guys that are on staff here, many of these conversations coming over the local fair of Venezuela(arepas and the Maracuchan special, patacones[spelling?] which is kind of a sandwich made with two fried plantains{green and savory or yellow and sweet} that are smashed into "buns" and then there is some kind of meat, tomato, onion, lettuce, and sauce between them. they are some of my favorite eats in the world now. but you have to get the ones on the street, in my opinion those were the best ones we had)
it was so cool to talk to these young men and their passion to see their country and their desire to see it changed from the inside out by the Gospel and how this could be such an important country when it comes to seeing the Gospel go to places like the middle east or other countries where Americans can not go easily. it was a great reminder encouragement and reminder of why i am here. so cool.

As i mentioned briefly before we were also there for Thanksgiving and got to celebrate as a Vida Estudiantil family. it was great, there was alot of traditional and tasty Thanksgiving food prepared by by extraordinarily gifted hands.
There were quite a few Americans there between my team, the Maracaibo STINT team and a national staff family, but it was also many of the Venezuelans first time celebrating Thanksgivng(for obvious reasons). so it was special in many ways. and also hot. like 95 degrees feels like 105 degrees hot. very different than Ohio.

after this we got to relax on our first visa renewal trip in Aruba. i dont have much to say other than it was absolutely beautiful. the water was so blue and so clear. it was a great chance to chill and have fun with the team and some of the other stinters from Venezuela. we also got to enjoy some of our missed American comforts (peanut butter and real milk, as well as some other things)which was fun.

Venezuelan airports are alot of fun as well. on the way to Aruba we got to spend 7 hours in the Maracaibo airport waiting for a 25 minute flight. there was alot of finger wagging and shouting by the other Venezuelans waiting for the same flight...things just work very differently here...

after returning from Aruba we only had one week on campus before they went on their holiday break....
and ill leave you on a bit of a cliff hanger here. i just gave you November in a nutshell and i still have the rest of the month of December and i want to try to sleep since it's 12:45 in the morning here in Venezuela.( i haven't been sleeping well lately, i dont know why)

part two coming soon...